AMPHIPOLIS TOMB AND SCIENCE
By Prof. Lefteris Kaliambos T. E. Institute of Larissa Greece ' October 2014 According to archeologists major events took place in the area of ancient Amphipolis (Macedonia of Greece) in the years after Hephaestion’s death (324 BC). Archaeologists unearthing a burial site at Amphipolis in northern Greece have made an extremely important find. Experts believe the tomb belonged to Hepaestion or to an important figure dating back to the last quarter of the Fourth Century BC. The second senario is that the tomb belongs to the wife of Alexander the Great, Roxanne, and his son, Alexander the 4th. According to archaeologists, the date of the surrounding wall coincides with the period during which great historical events took place in the area of Amphipolis. According to the History of Greek people,( Ekdotike Athenon, Volume Δ, page 278) Alexander the 4th (323-311 BC) was heir to the throne of Macedonia as he would be the king after his father’s death. However, he was arrested and kept prisoner in Amphipolis under General Kassandros’ orders. He was later murdered at the age of 12 along with his mother in Amphipolis. Other ancient sites have been found in the Macedonia region of northern Greece, principally the Vergina tomb of Alexander's father, Philip II, which was unearthed in 1977. Since the Amphipolis tomb is much more greater than that of Phillip II, there has been widespread speculation that a prominent figure in ancient Macedonia may have been buried at Amphipolis tomb ( Kasta hill) , 600km north of Athens. The burial mound was constructed with 2,500 cubic meters of marble imported from the nearby island of Thassos and there are suggestions it was built by the renowned architect, Dinocrates, who was a friend of Alexander the Great. ' '''In my paper AMPHIPOLIS TOMB AND ASTRONOMY I emphasize that according to the historical data the Pyre of Hephaestion (324 BC) planned by Dinocrates, had a base at the very long size of one stade of the Hellenistic period ( 1 stade = 157.5 m). Surprisingly comparing it with the Amphipolis tomb I discovered that the diameter (d) of the circular base of the Amphipolis tomb is equal to the one stade of the Hellenistic period. Taking into account that the medium line of the surrounding wall of the Amphipolis tomb makes a circular base having a perimeter P = 494.8 m I found the length of the diameter by using the correct math of Archimedes. On this basis using the ratio P/d = π = 3.1416 proposed theoretically by Archimedes ( 287 BC - 212 BC) I discovered that ' '''d = P/π = 494.8/3.1416 = 157.5 m = 1 stade of the Hellenistic period. ' Based on this ratio one may conclude that also Dinocrates who lived before Archimedes as a famous architect, had a correct practical knowledge of π = 3.1416. For example wrapping a cylinder with a rope we can find carefully the number π = 3.1416 by dividing the rope length to the diameter of the cylinder. Note that Dinocrates was the architect of Alexandria (331 BC), because Alexander called on him to draw up the plans for the city. Those years of his activity in Egypt he perhaps learned the math about the construction of the great pyramid at Giza. Today it is well known that the great pyramid at Giza constructed c. 2589-2566 BC was built with a perimeter of about 1760 cubits ( 1cubit = 0.4572 m ) and a height of about 280 cubits; the ratio 1760/280 = 6.2857 is approximately equal to 2π = 6.2832. Based on this ratio Egyptologists concluded that the pyramid builders had practical knowledge of π and deliberately designed the pyramid to incorporate the proportions of a circle. Also for practical purposes the papyrus (ca.1650 BC) gives us insight into the mathematics of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians calculated the area (E) of a circle by using the diameter d in the following formula E = (3.16Xd) (d/4) Here 3.16 is the approximate value for π. However Dinocrates for defining the perimeter of the circular base used not the diameter d but the radius r = d/2 starting from fixed position. If Dinocrates used the above approximation for calculating the area of the circular base we would find a perimeter P as P = 3.16 X 157.5 = 497.7 m Of course this leads to the second perimeter of the circular base of the Amphipolis tomb measured outside the surrounding wall. Here one sees that my discovery of the ( d = 1 stade) in Amphipolis tomb supports not only the idea that Eratosthenes for the measurement of the perimeter of the earth used the stade of the Hellenistic period but also the idea that the number π = 3.1416 was used successfully for practical purposes before the time of Archimedes. Of course such a number did much for the progress of astronomy. For example Aristarchus of Samos using the π = 3.1416 wrote his paper On the Sizes and Distances (of the Sun and Moon) (Περὶ μεγεθῶν καὶ ἀποστημάτων καὶ σελήνης, Peri megethon kai apostematon).This work calculates the sizes of the Sun and Moon, as well as their distances from the Earth in terms of Earth's radius and led to his discovery of the heliocentric system. In my book COSMOGONY (2012) which is in the library of Larissa I pointed out that the measurement of the diameter D of our Earth by Eratosthenes opened new horizons for the astronomy. So Greek mathematician and astronomer Aristarchus o Samos ( 310 BC-230 BC) under the measurement of the diameter D of the Earth found that the Sun is greater than the Earth. So Aristarchus developed the heliocentric system by saying that the Earth moves around the Sun because it is smaller than it. The heliocentric system was successfully revived by Copernicus, after which Johannes Kepler described planetary motions with greater accuracy, with Kepler's laws, and Isaac Newton gave a correct explanation based on laws of gravitational attraction and dynamics. Particularly after many centuries (1687) Newton based on the heliocentric system discovered the law of universal gravity according to which a gravitational force acting at a distance is equal to the inertial force due to the orbital velocity of the Earth measured always with respect to the Sun. However later (in 1905 and 1916) Einstein’s contradicting theories of relativity led to serious complications because he believed incorrectly that the Earth and the Sun are equivalent systems. Category:Fundamental physics concepts